The present invention relates to a configuration setting system for a network system, in which a plurality of electronic devices are connected to a network, and operational parameters of the plurality of electronic devices are set based on the settings of one of the plurality of electronic devices.
When a plurality of electronic devices are connected to a network, it is sometimes necessary to set the operational parameters of a part of or all of the plurality of electronic devices to be predetermined settings. In such a case, if the operational parameters of each electronic device are set individually, for example, by a system administrator, it is very troublesome to set all the parameters of a number of electronic devices. In order to facilitate such a work, conventionally, an automatic configuration setting system has been suggested, in which a model electronic device is defined, and the operational parameters of the plurality of the electronic devices are automatically set based on the settings of the model electronic device.
However, when a predetermined electronic device is determined to be the model device for the network system, if it is disconnected from the network, even temporarily, there is no model printer on the network, and the other electronic devices cannot obtain the necessary settings therefrom.
In order to avoid such a problem, when an existing model device is disconnected from the network, another model device may be determined, from among the currently connected electronic devices, to operate as the model device.
However, if the previous model device is re-connected to the network again after the new model device is determined, two model devices exist on the network simultaneously. Generally, the electronic devices are frequently connected to and disconnected from the network. Therefore, there could be a chance that a plurality of model devices may simultaneously exist on the network. In such a case, it is difficult or impossible to determine an appropriate model device to be used for setting the operational parameters of the other electronic devices on the network.